Title

Author

Date of Award

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master Of Arts In Clinical Psychology

Colleges & School

College Of Arts And Sciences

First Advisor

Gregory Jurenec, PhD

Library of Congress Subject Heading

Eating disorders; Stress

Abstract

Much research has been conducted regarding the link between stress and eating behaviors. The current research has produced conflicting results. It was hypothesized at the beginning of this study that individuals who experience a high number of stressors and have a higher mean stress severity score over a week period will consume more food and a higher percentage of fats and carbohydrates. It was also hypothesized, that eating typology as assessed in the study would moderate this effect. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how everyday stress can affect maladaptive changes in our diets and if specific individuals are more at risk. This study utilized the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) to determine eating typology, a one week self report diary that was used to track and record all food consumed, as well as stressors experienced over a one week period. Completed diaries and questionnaires were collected from 24 individuals. The results of this study suggests that individuals who are classified as high level emotional eaters are more likely to consume more food over the week period than their lower ranked counterparts. In addition, a relationship was found between the number of stressors an individual experienced and the percentage of carbohydrates they consumed. It does not appear that this is a linear relationship as the moderate group of total number of stressors experienced actually consumed the smallest percentage of carbohydrates, but individuals who reported the highest number of stressors did consume the highest percentage of carbohydrates.